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fish are dying out on me and I can't find a reason

2K views 16 replies 11 participants last post by  lksdrinker 
#1 ·
Hi Ok so I'll start at the top

So set up so far.
120Gal (24x24x48)- planted tank.
Lighting I have 2 Build My LED 6500K 4' lights and a soluna comtroler, (8 hours of light, 1.5 hour ram up in the morning 5 hours at 60% then 1.5 hours of ramp down)
Filter I have a FX6
intank 500W heater in home made inclosure run inline
pressurized co2 system with home made reactor ruining 3bps droped to 1bps drop check never been fully green.

sytem goes tank-fx6-heater-co2 reactor-tank
substrate is 100 lb of 50/50 mix of fluorite dark and black

November 2015
filled and planted the tank
I have some ram snails that came with the plants there doing well. using co2 supplement from Seachem
Started to cycle

December 2015
Did a fishless cycle and adding ammonia to feed the cycle. tested and it could take 4ppm ammonia to 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate in about a hour in mid Decmeber.


Jan 2016
set up and dialed in co2 system came out to 3bps to just start turning the drop checker green pants started pearling full light.
Did back to back 75% water changes to get rid of any thing left in the water from the cycle, next day added first batch of fish
15 glowlight danios
and 4 green laser Cory Cats
few moving losses 4 glow lights not a big deal all healthy LFS replace the 4 and they all took the move fine water stayed good no problems

Feb
added next batch
15 glowlight danios
and 4 green laser Cory Cats (note I rearly saw all the Cory Cats at the same time no clue if the original 4 were all still there but at least 3 were)
Move when good no losses for a few weeks
then at the start of march my Cory Cats started dying. slowly one ever few days. Called up my friend that helped me set it up and we could not figure it out talked to the LFS they said they were having problems with them dying as well and they thought it was the stock.

I keep and eye on the water every water change.
at this point I also tuned down my co2 from 3bps to 1 due to the fact the solenoid valve is leaking when off it get 1b ever 4-5 sec when off and 1bps when it's on.

the fish all seamed healthy and there colors were nice and bright I had a bit of hair alga now that the co2 was down that I pull every water change.

April
still have ~30 glow lights all nice and bright
added 15 Harlequin rasboras.
and change my feeding to to frozen brine shrimp once a week before water changes and there normal Omega flakes the rest of the time.
first 2 week no problems colors started to relay pop on the rasboas. there was a little chasing back and for between the danios and rasboa but just sprints half way across the tank. but mostly they actual schooled together except after the light was off then the glowlights go hide in the stem plants and the harlequins school together in the open water.

then I noticed the harlequins were diminishing in number I did fine a few bodies but not as many as I have lost. then the glow lights have started doing the same since mid April to now I've gone from 30 glow lights and 15 rasboras to 1 rasboras and ~10-15 glowlights. and we can't figure out why.

water is still 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate ph is 7.4-7.6 some were and the water temp is 25C (77F)

I do 30% water change every week. 40 gal
dechlorinator is added to the tank before the new water

using Seachem
Prime dose for 50 gal each water change I know I'm over by 10 but.
Flourish
Flourish iron
and Stability dose for the hole tank 120gal
at every water change
fertilizers are under dosed for a 100gal 2 caps of each after each water change

Help!
 
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#2 ·
That's a tough one.

Unless I'm missing something, other than the Cory's dying and losing a few others in a newly cycled tank nothing 'really strange' happened until April. In April you started feeding frozen brine shrimp and you starting losing alot of fish. Did you overdue the brine shrimp. It seems strange that you had the glowlights for a few months and then you lost them at that time along with the Rasboras.

Also why are dosing only Flourish, Flourish Iron. What are yo growing?
 
#3 ·
I game them half a cube and they are it all in a min or so and actual I was down to 6-7 rasbora before I gave them brine shrimp I was going for that they needed a better diet trying to help didn't do much for me though as I had not visually lost any glow lights yet.

I'm using that because that's what was recommended to me.
the tank has as far as I can tell the hand wrighting is bad and I don't know the plants that well it was a kit set up by a guy in north yourk for me
AR purple
rotala sp green
myuphlm
penny wart
rutnl sp
philipine fern
Crypt tropiu
breuips
hmicroanthemaids
dwart husglass
monle carlo
jungle grass
nann
phenix moss
pellna



The fish look healthy.
I just don't know what I'm doing wrong.
I ether got some disease I'm missing with the rasbora or something is messed up in my tank and I hate to scrap it and start over, if for no outer reason then I don't have the cash to redo the substrate and plants over again.
 
#4 ·
There is no mention if you did a 30+ day quarantine on your fish. You could have caught a disease if you quarantined your fish. Its bad fish keeping habits that will cause stress to your fish and yourself not to mention financial issues if you do not take precautions. Thats if of course there is something else wrong with the tank. But seriously not to QT fish in this day and age?
 
#6 ·
Are you turning off your co2 at night?
these would be the two major things that could be happening. co2 poisoning or a fungus/bacterial disease, i would put the fish in a bucket or a smaller tank with a airstone and small filter and see if they keep dying, if they dont it is co2/tank related, however if they keep dying i would look into some medications.
 
#8 ·
I'm surprised that you never saw any nitrate during your fishless cycle and/or now. It is possible for the plants to consume all of the nitrate; but most see some sort of discernible reading. I would say maybe you just dont have enough fish in there to sustain a bacterial colony; but then again with a reading of 0 ammonia and nitrite that shouldn't be an issue either. You are talking about a pretty large tank that is very lightly stocked with relatively small fish so I'm sure some could be going un-noticed in there somewhere too. The quality of the fish could just be a bit lacking too. Unfortunately finding hearty stock seems to be getting tougher and tougher!
 
#10 ·
SO picked up stuff for small QT tank.
talked to there fish expert (aka fish manager)
and he said test KH as he's had some customers of late the KH was doing the same thing my KH is 6.
info I can find say that's the bottom limit for the harlaqins and below what the glowights like what's the fix?

Bump:
I did in my cycle back when I was topping up the ammonia at 3ppm ever 24 hours but It's a densely planted tank most the time you cant see through the tank unless I've trimmed recently.

Below is current I trimmed last week due to the jungle grass and penny wart blocking a lot of light all the stems grow about 5-6" a week.
 

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#9 ·
I can't help but wonder about the pH. My Glowlight Danios are doing exceptionally well at a pH of 6.5

From what I remember, they need the more acidic pH to do well.
 
#11 ·
It's always been my understanding (and it's how I dose my tanks) that if you add the prime directly to the tank during a water change, you have to dose for the entire water volume (150g) not just the portion you are replacing (40g). I just reread the directions on the Seachem's website, and it states that if you're adding directly to the aquarium, add based on tank volume. Dosing based on the water being added means the Prime gets a lot more diluted than it would if it was dosed based on the volume of water it's being added to, which reduces it's effectiveness. This is definitely something to consider.

I saw ph mentioned - I've got a school of 15 glowlight danios in my 46 that have been in the tank for over two years with a ph of 8.3. I would not think that's your problem, nor would I honestly be real concerned about kh. Yours is not abnormally high or low and shouldn't be causing any issues for your fish.
 
#12 ·
The mention of the amount of dechor used may be helpful. The dechlor has to find the chlorine and it has to be in a time frame that makes it effective. Thinking of it as you looking for somebody at a party? You may find them in time when the party only has 10 people but if there are 100 people there, you need more folks helping you look to get the job done in the time available. When adding to the tank, treat for the full volume of the tank, not the volume of water being changed.
This may be a point that matters in some cases. I think of chlorine as a point easily missed but something like repeated sunburns to the gills. It may not show but each time there can be added damage which at some point becomes too much to let them live. Part of what makes fish care difficult at times is that there are so many sneaky things that don't seem to cause trouble but then, over time, fish die "for no reason".
While it is often difficult with small fish, close observation of how they die can be very helpful. A fish dying from disease will often act quite different for a few hours/days before dying. The same is true of different behavior when dying due to lack of O2. If they are hanging at the surface like they are breathing hard, it can be really helpful to know that. Info like looking carefully at behavior and breathing as well as how they die can give you some clues. Look at normal gills and the movement and then compare to others of the same type to see if there are any obvious clues, perhaps?
 
#13 ·
My small tanks I premix in a bucket with a showerhead to aerate and offgas as a secondary benefit.
Big tanks I put the hose in, and let it trickle in over 20 minutes or so, dosing for the volume of water plus 50%.
 
#14 ·
you guys are right I'm been dousing the prime wrong. I have since day one. I feel like a complete Idiot. this is the first tank I've used the python to fill I didn't take in accountant I was not premixing any more.

Bump: you guys are right I'm been dousing the prime wrong. I have since day one. I feel like a complete Idiot. this is the first tank I've used the python to fill I didn't take in accountant I was not premixing any more.
 
#17 ·
whoops! Well at least you figured out what you were doing wrong and can learn from the mistake.

I wonder if your PH is going up and down. When co2 is on your ph will drop and then when off it will raise. How about testing the ph when the lights are on and then an hour after the lights go out. I have some were around 70 to 80 fish in a 120 right now and with very little in loss in two years. I run two q/t tanks and have seen losses in those tanks but once they get thru and in there permanent tank no issues.
Fluctuating ph values due to adding co2 dont seem to affect fish as much as fluctuating ph values caused by other factors such as different source water, buffers, etc.
 
#15 ·
You're certainly not an idiot - we've all goofed up with something at one point or another! That's part of what this forum is for, to help each other figure stuff like this out :) Oftentimes we get in our routine and so can't see things that jump right out to someone else. Hate that you've lost fish, but hope this ends up being the answer to your issues as it's obviously a very easy fix!
 
#16 ·
I wonder if your PH is going up and down. When co2 is on your ph will drop and then when off it will raise. How about testing the ph when the lights are on and then an hour after the lights go out. I have some were around 70 to 80 fish in a 120 right now and with very little in loss in two years. I run two q/t tanks and have seen losses in those tanks but once they get thru and in there permanent tank no issues.
 
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